The British historian Arnold Toynbee, at the age of 78, toured San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and wrote his impressions for the London Observer. 'The leaders of the Establishment,' he said, 'will be making the mistake of their lives if they discount and ignore the revolt of the hippies and many of the hippies' non hippie contemporaries on the grounds that these are either disgraceful wastrels or traitors, or else just silly kids who are sowing their wild oats.'Toynbee never really endorsed the hippies; he explained his affinity in the longer focus of history. If the human race is to survive, he said, the ethical, moral, and social habits of the world must change: The emphasis must switch from nationalism to mankind. And Toynbee saw in the hippies a hopeful resurgence of the basic humanitarian values that were beginning to seem to him and other long-range thinkers like a tragically lost cause in the war-poisoned atmosphere of the 1960's. He was not quite sure what the hippies really stood for, but since they were against the same things he was against (war, violence, and dehumanized profiteering), he was naturally on their side, and vice versa.

Being near to age 60 , I feel freer to let folks on both ends of the spectrum know they are FOS if the shoe fits.

I still am Liberal and will never be able to embrace the Conservative philosophy, especially today's brand of conservatism. I'm glad to be called a Progressive too if folks feel they must pigeonhole modern day Liberals.

At twenty you're all ambition. At forty, you're looking for something else. At sixty, most people are preparing to meet their Maker, but would like to leave the world intact for those who are still young.

At sixty those who enjoyed the ride are conservatives, and want to conserve it for others and are focused on helping children and grandchildren. Those who are still liberal are still trying to relive their youth -- sort of like Eliot Spitzer with his hookers or Bill Clinton with Monica or what was the guy's name in Brooklyn last month.

The 'Churchill' version I was brought up with was "If you were never a socialist before you were 30, you've got no heart. If you are still socialist after 30, you've got no head" I also like the definition of a conservative as "a liberal who was mugged by reality." That'll be me.

We are afforded only one epiphany per lifetime. Once you respect individual dignity, you always respect individual dignity. So, at 60, you are still conservative; however, as time wears on, you also become jaded.

Shrewd observation, Henry.....A lot of the wisdom of age comes from having a diminished libido and an enlarged prostate. I suppose there are exceptions like DSK, but I find it pleasant to live in a time zone where it's no longer necessary or even interesting to actively pursue sex, status, or money. Liberal, conservative--they're just points in a mobius strip that takes you nowhere. A high fiber diet and comfortable shoes--these are the true predictors of human happiness, not politics.

I don't know. I was conservative at 15, libertarian by 25, want to see an open source formal Corporate Bill of Rights/Constitution between citizen and corporation at 40 - I'll probably be a full on revolutionary by 60 except I'll be just too darn tired to do anything.

An older friend of mine set up an office in his basement. I think he's about 40 or something. I went over there and checked out his new home office. I noticed that he assembled a cork poster board with all kinds of political memorabilia. 100% Democratic. It occurred to me in that moment of scanning the board that he had not once in his whole life ever even considered voting for any Republican candidate, no matter what the year or the situation. How easy it must be to simply eliminate half the possibilities. How blinkered! I am sorry now that I saw what he so proudly displayed. I now view him as basically resolutely retarded.

I didn't say he couldn't put up whatever he wished and I didn't ridicule what he did there or here either. And nowhere did I say he isstarting a business. It's an established travel agency, of which he is a part. I expressed here about the impact that the display had on me, how it changed my view of him, for whatever it's worth to you, apparently nothing. But come on! No matter what one's political affiliations, why in the world would anyone want to advertise them so fiercely in their office and risk alienating their clients?

Right on, Sister Ann. As I approach 60, I am totally disgusted by both sides, totally pessimistic that either side can do any good and totally turned off by any and all candidates who say that they are "of the people". Most of them haven't had an "of the people" moment in their lives (Romney) or a genuine moment of empathy towards anyone except themselves and those who believe as they do(All the others). And if the Republican party thinks they can win with a combination of Perry and Bachmann, they should listen to the candidates for 5 minutes and they will realize that their hate filled rhetoric and their negativity will turn off most rational thinking people. If the left (and I am a Democrat) thinks that we are going to follow Obama over the edge in to the abyss, they have another thing coming.

If the Republicans want to win an election, they have to field a candidate that people actually like and are drawn to and can provide something positive. I would vote for Chris Christie in a heartbeat. Fiscally conservative, socially liberal(and you know he is) He is my kind of candidate.

Back in the 1950's, air-conditioning came first to movie theaters. People would go to the movies and see two features. Just to cool off.

On Saturdays, parents would give their kids a quarter ... to spend all day at the movies watching cartoons.

My mom said, back in the 1920's, kids would get two-cents. When sharing a seat in the movie theaters (to see silent films). Cost a nickel. So kids would stand outside the movie theaters shouting: "I've got two cents, who has three?"

Parents always wanted their kids to go outside to play. It gave moms a chance to clean house.

While my mom also told stories about how poor some families were ... so that instead of beds ... kids slept on two chairs that had been pulled together.

I can't imagine how anyone can blame the imaginary left for all of today's problems. Since bringing those "problems" home ... are usually just ways to frighten the kids.

Like my mom used to tell me, when I didn't finish all the food on my plate, about all the starving children in China.

Most of them haven't had an "of the people" moment in their lives (Romney)

Vic, from what I know, you are wrong about Romney.

Here is an excerpt from a speech given to the Mormon Lawyer Society by Clayton Christensen, a Mormon and a professor at Harvard Business School.

"Let me tell you the story of a small band of [Mormons] in the Boston area.... In the early 1990s the Cambridge Ward met in the Harvard Square chapel. There were probably 500 members in that ward, but over 300 of them were inactive."

"Most of the inactive lived in the communities of Malden, Everett, Revere and Chelsea – working class communities where it was quite easy to baptize people, because they lived in circumstances that compelled them to be humble."

"But when these good people would brave their way to the Harvard Square chapel, they found a ward whose leadership ranks – in fact every rank – was filled to overflowing with talented, experienced, qualified life-long members who had come to Boston to study at MIT and Harvard."

"The vast majority of these members quickly felt that they didn’t fit, and fell into inactivity. Facing this challenge, Cambridge Ward Bishop Kim Clark [former Dean of HBS] and our stake [like a Diocese] president, Mitt Romney, decided to establish a “twig” (too small to be a branch) of the church in Malden."

"They held their first meeting in the home of Sister Letha May, who rarely had come to church but nonetheless had good feelings about it. Twelve people came on that first Sunday."

"[Stake] President Romney had told them that if they got 20 people attending, he would rent a meeting hall for them to use on Sunday."

......"So after that first Sacrament Meeting those 12 members and 2 missionaries huddled together and asked themselves the question that the Savior said good shepherds ask: “Who else could have come here today, who didn’t come?”"

"They then each took an assignment to contact one of those people that same day, with the message, “We missed you! Are you okay? Is there anything we can do to help? Can you come next week? We need you!” The next Sunday they set up 20 chairs in Sister May’s living room, and after the meeting they again huddled to ask that same question, and answer it by taking assignments to contact each of them that day.

"Within a couple of months they had filled all 20 chairs, and [Stake] President Romney helped them rent a hall for their Sunday meetings. But they soon learned how inconvenient this was – they had to bring the podium, hymn books, sacrament equipment, and keyboard with them every Sunday and then take it home again."

"They asked [Stake] President Romney if they could just rent the fall for the entire week. He said they could – as soon as they had 40 members attending Sacrament Meeting. So the next Sunday they set up 40 chairs, and kept having that meeting after church to ask the right questions: “Who else could have come today who didn’t? And “Who is going to contact them today to tell them how much we need them?” Within a year 40 people were attending, and they were able to lease the space week-round. "

"The members of the Malden Branch were feeling their oats, however, and asked [Stake] President Romney if he thought they might ever be able to have their own chapel. He responded that they could – but they needed to have attendance up to 80 people to qualify for a Phase I building. So the next Sunday they set up 60 chairs, and kept having that meeting after church where they kept asking the right question."

"Within 2 years they had filled those chairs, and 2 years after that had filled the next 20. They just kept asking that question."

"Before you leave Boston, I invite you to drive north out of downtown on Route 1. In about 10 minutes, at the Sargent Street exit, look to the left. There is a beautiful Phase-II chapel, home to the Revere 1st and 2nd wards – a beautiful monument to that small band of members who asked the right question."

Mitt, working with the uneducated and poor, and showing them how to take care of themselves, and supporting them each step of the way.

And if the Republican party thinks they can win with a combination of Perry and Bachmann, they should listen to the candidates for 5 minutes and they will realize that their hate filled rhetoric and their negativity will turn off most rational thinking people.

Can you provide an example of this? I'm not a Bachmann fan, but I really haven't heard her say anything I would define as "hate filled rhetoric" - though plenty has been directed at her. Same goes for Governor Perry - someone whose straight talk so far I like a lot.

The religious right's message isn't hidden from view by Bachmann or Perry. Both are pro-life. Both believe the earth was created in 6000 years. Both are anti-science. And, both sell well in Iowa.

If the GOP is unaware of its problems; and focuses on obama's falling ratings ... they forgot to look over at Boehner's popularity which flew off the cliff.

As to the religious right, this thing took off like gangbusters after Roe V. Wade passed.

Then? If you look at Bork NOT being nominated ... you'd see that Reagan understood Bork wasn't worth the wasted political capital.

Then, you come to Sandra Day O'Connor. And, you realize the millions of dollars that were raised in churches ... And, yet she handled Roe by "extending" its term limits.

And, then, Sandra Day O'Connor, using forks and plastic reindeer; went and commented on what would make a Nativity scene "Kosher" as a public display ... Where plastic reindeer needed to be present. And, what would not.

Then, of course, there's Jimmy Carter's victory in 1976. Where he ran against Ford. And, he aimed for the Evangelical votes. Which he got.

"their hate filled rhetoric" would be things like pointing out the economy and jobless rate. It would NOT include talking about pushing cars out of ditches while the America hating opposition stands by sipping on a slurpee. It's pretty much based on who says it, rather than what is said. Happy to help out.

""The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.""

Blessings and miseries are both by by nature unequally shared, and no system devised fixes that, but only capitalism can both accept this truth, and provide the means to both reach for what you want and walk away from what you don't.

Without freedom, blessings are like sculpture ground to sand for the sharing.

And the rejoinder, "a liberal is a conservative who has been arrested".

I would suggest just the opposite - after all, all those laws are a result of state action, which is what liberalism is all about.

It is the liberals who try to force the rest of us to behave, think, etc., as they think best and proper. And, they use the police to enforce their will. So, I would suggest that it is plain silly to think that a conservative would become a liberal once arrested. Rather, I think that he would just become more libertarian.

"Both are pro-life. Both believe the earth was created in 6000 years. Both are anti-science."

About 1/2 the country can be considered pro life. I'm guessing the 6000 years thing is a dig at them being religious. The anti science is something about global warming?

Who knows? I doubt we get a social conservative winning the nomination. Right now most people that vote are concentrating on fiscal policies. No matter who gets the republican nomination, by the time the media gets done, they will be farther right than anyone who has ever run before. You could have Bloomberg running and he will make pat robertson look like he is left of Castro.

Carol, you know I love you, but nobody believes the earth was created in 6,000 years. Well, not nobody, but nobody in any position of power. Don't worry your pretty little wonderful noggin. If the witch trials come back, it will be the left running them, and they will be looking for you, because you are weird, and will definitely piss them off.

I am convinced that much of our opposition to free and open sexuality is that a bunch of baby-killing seems to go along with it.

I'm a little more optimistic in that regard. I'd say it's much more the societal reflex to the fact that a baby produced by way of random sex is way behind the eight ball right out of the womb. Glorious sexual passion is worth risk from any decent societal point of view. Emphasis on that particular point of view.

As others have said, Churchill never said it. And he couldn't have. He was a Conservative at 20 (he was elected to Parliament initially as a Tory) and was a liberal at 35 (he crossed the aisle and became a Liberal minister). He only became a Conservative again in 1924 after the Liberal party collapsed, the Labour party became the main party on the left, and he worked his way back in to government.

Carol Herman wrote:But, up ahead, that retirement rule set at 65 has to change. Or medicine has to drive backward.I work 14 hrs/night doing highly technical work at an altitude of 14,000'. Air pressure is 623 Mb up there.Glad to know that Caroline wants me to do this until I am 70+!

But, up ahead, that retirement rule set at 65 has to change. Or medicine has to drive backward.

But of course, decrease eligibility by age so that those lazy bastards will keep paying in to a system instead of just their spawn. That way more will pay in until they die. Pshaw on any kind of means testing, or modification to the payout growth calculations, or reduction in under 65 eligibility.

Good to know there's all those good jobs out there for the over 50 crowd. I bet it's even better for the over 65 bunch of laggards.

Could we stop calling Medicare and Social Security "insurance", please? Insurance is something you purchase to protect yourself from unlikely disasters.

If you want to convince people to use your private definition of insurance, then you're going to need to put a little more effort into persuasion. In general insurance is an agreement under which you receive payment if you suffer some loss, damage, or illness. In exchange for that coverage, you pay a premium. The amount of the premium is computed by actuaries based on the total expected payout over the entire risk pool. By your definition life insurance isn't insurance because death is 100% probable.

At 20, almost to the day, I was enlisting in the Army. I'd like to think I've been conservative since I was about 10. There's no excuse for being a Liberal after 16 (or whenever you get your first real paycheck). Liberalism is the kiddie swing of philosophies. Gotta get off it eventually.

Whassamatter, garbage? Still bitter that the T.A.'s made a mockery of every single one of your "poor little workers NEED unions" arguments by kicking the scumbags from Big Labor to the curb? Definitely the funniest thing to come from this whole debacle.

Revenant- you are picking nits. They are progams where you pay in siginificant 15% of your annual compensation ergo it's similar to any savings plan yet the govt could not even manage it in a fiscally solvent way. Insurance and savings businesses are very simple businesses yet the govt was unable or unwilling to comply with the basest level of fiduciary care.

If you want to convince people to use your private definition of insurance

in·sur·ance /ɪnˈʃʊərəns, -ˈʃɜr-/ noun

1.the act, system, or business of insuring property, life, one's person, etc., against loss or harm arising in specified contingencies, as fire, accident, death, disablement, or the like, in consideration of a payment proportionate to the risk involved.

2. "Social Security" (OASDI) has three components: (a) "D" is for "disability" payments, which are contingent on the onset of specified chronic medical conditions; (b) "S" is for "survivors" benefits, which are contingent on the death of a spouse; (c) "OA" is for "old age" benefits, which take the form of an annuity.

The first two, being contingent payments, are clearly insurance. What about the "old age" payments? Is an annuity a form of insurance?

Of course everyone, beginning with Winston Churchill, accepts as fact that young Republicans are simply born without hearts.

Still, the emotional future for young Republicans is completely bright. Through a process not fully understood, young Republicans, at around age 25, begin to develop organs commonly known as proto-hearts, generating from specialized cells called conservoblasts which produce large amounts of extracellular matrix composed of Type II collagen-like fibers, abundant ground substance rich in liberglycan, and elastin fibers. The proto-heart emits a substance scientists refer to as glutinophilla or, more commonly, "tough love."

Sadly, while billions and billions of research dollars and countless hours have been spent in hopes of discovery, scientists have yet to observe an analogous "proto-brain" development in Democrats as old even as Jimmy Carter. In fact, the entire mystery of why Democrats have no brains is now widely considered to be unknowable and...

Churchill never said it and if he had it wouldn't mean the same thing it does today because conservative and liberal meant something different in his day, but I will take a stab at it:

"If you arent a liberal by the time you are 20 you have no heart. If you arent a conservative by the time you are 40, you have no brain.If you aren't wondering where they put he jar with your heart in it that you got cut out in your 30's by the time you're 60 your in deep doo doo.

“That is, with every wind of modern political culture against them, Romney and Ryan drew forth endorsement of conservative principles on a truly virtuoso scale.”

It is more than just the “political” culture that current conservatives faced in almost equal number as those who had joined with Obama. But, the almost-equal on the right have and will continue to departing to the grave yards to which each generation in its times goes.

Winston Churchill had it right when he said, "If you're not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at 40 you have no brain." Thus in another 20 years there will have come from the current crop that stood with and voted for President Obama an new generation of older people who have in rather large numbers become conservatives.

In the meantime, the conservative GOP will either disappear or languish in the same kind of political backwaters as did Republicans during the time of FDR and Harry Truman, from 1932 to 1952. This is being a comparative period of time during which Whigs (with accompaniment of the Tea Party likes of the end times---the Know-Nothings) grew older and older and came to be replaced by the progressive spirit of the emergence of a new party of Abe Lincoln that would become the GOP that held its place in the sun while hearts were comparatively young and gay. It is mostly true that you can’t teach an old dog new, but dogs are not born old, so just hang around awhile and with FOX News maybe bark at the moon and pretend a high tide is coming soon.

“That is, with every wind of modern political culture against them, Romney and Ryan drew forth endorsement of conservative principles on a truly virtuoso scale.”

It is more than just the “political” culture that current conservatives faced in almost equal number as those who had joined with Obama. But, the almost-equal on the right have and will continue to departing to the grave yards to which each generation in its times goes.

Winston Churchill had it right when he said, "If you're not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at 40 you have no brain." Thus in another 20 years there will have come from the current crop that stood with and voted for President Obama an new generation of older people who have in rather large numbers become conservatives.

In the meantime, the conservative GOP will either disappear or languish in the same kind of political backwaters as did Republicans during the time of FDR and Harry Truman, from 1932 to 1952. This is being a comparative period of time during which Whigs (with accompaniment of the Tea Party likes of the end times---the Know-Nothings) grew older and older and came to be replaced by the progressive spirit of the emergence of a new party of Abe Lincoln that would become the GOP that held its place in the sun while hearts were comparatively young and gay. It is mostly true that you can’t teach an old dog new, but dogs are not born old, so just hang around awhile and with FOX News maybe bark at the moon and pretend a high tide is coming soon.

“That is, with every wind of modern political culture against them, Romney and Ryan drew forth endorsement of conservative principles on a truly virtuoso scale.”

It is more than just the “political” culture that current conservatives faced in almost equal number as those who had joined with Obama. But, the almost-equal on the right have and will continue to departing to the grave yards to which each generation in its times goes.

Winston Churchill had it right when he said, "If you're not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at 40 you have no brain." Thus in another 20 years there will have come from the current crop that stood with and voted for President Obama an new generation of older people who have in rather large numbers become conservatives.

In the meantime, the conservative GOP will either disappear or languish in the same kind of political backwaters as did Republicans during the time of FDR and Harry Truman, from 1932 to 1952. This is being a comparative period of time during which Whigs (with accompaniment of the Tea Party likes of the end times---the Know-Nothings) grew older and older and came to be replaced by the progressive spirit of the emergence of a new party of Abe Lincoln that would become the GOP that held its place in the sun while hearts were comparatively young and gay. It is mostly true that you can’t teach an old dog new, but dogs are not born old, so just hang around awhile and with FOX News maybe bark at the moon and pretend a high tide is coming soon.

Not sure I could say this better than Churchill -or whomever. I'll just make a commentary on what I feel. If you don't realize politics is bullshit at 60, you never lived. In the long-run, life isn't about some never ending, political struggle which only culminates in sanctimony and hot air. Life is about finding a cute woman or man and having a family with that person. That's what I care about, at least. So yeah, if at 60 you're still political, you're retarded. I'm 22 and I feel stupid for realizing this so late in life. You can't change the world, you can only change yourself.